G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator

[Grimnar]

Some reading for BG

Fourth Boss: G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator The fourth boss in Karagga's Palace is the G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator which uses the Towers of Hanoi puzzle game as an integral mechanic.


The G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator is inactive until the puzzle is completed for the first time which allows ample time for you to play with the puzzle and position your group optimally.


The ideal setup for this encounter is to have 3 ranged DPS on the upper platform to work the puzzle and 2 tanks for the boss. A mix of healers and ranged/melee DPS should make up the remainder. The remainder of the group can stand between the center and right upper platforms on the ground about 2-3 meters back from the conveyor that G4-B3 stands on to avoid the knockback and the proximity mines (more on this later).


G4-B3 begins this encounter with a stack of incoming damage reduction buffs (10) that solving the puzzle will remove. The ranged DPS on the upper platform will need to move the puzzle pieces around to solve the puzzle (3 legs on the bottom, 2 legs in the middle and the single leg on top). This will activate a fire control button that, when pressed, will fire a flame jet onto G4-B3 and remove his incoming damage reduction buff (and start the fight the first time it is activated). Note: your melee will want to remain in the hashed yellow markings to avoid taking damage from the flame jet (it can one-shot a tank on hard and nightmare modes). You will need good communication for the puzzle solvers in order to ensure the puzzle is solved quickly and that melee are out of range when the jet fires.


During this encounter, G4-B3 will apply a stacking armor reduction debuff to the tank. This is why it is important to have 2 tanks for this encounter. Once the stacks reach about 5-7, depending on how well geared your tank is and how good your healers are, you will want to swap tanks. After about 10 seconds, the stacks will drop off and the tanks can swap aggro again.


During this phase, the fight is a pretty standard tank-and-spank. G4-B3 will randomly do an AoE knockback which is a nuisance. He will also randomly target a member of the group and fire a rocket at them. The target will know because the character will have a large yellow target on them. You'll want to move away from other people because the rocket does splash damage and a knockdown when it hits.


Your ranged DPS should generally gather on the center platform sticking out into the room during this phase. This allows them to target and hit G4-B3 at any of the 3 jets.


Periodically, proximity mines will be deployed. Once the announcement is made, the ranged DPS should move back to their puzzle stations to solve the puzzle for the next jet (you cannot fire in the same place twice in a row). A proximity mine will spawn in front of each puzzle station, so burn it down so you can operate the puzzle. The rest of the mines can be ignored (just don't get too close as they hit for a decent amount when they explode and will debuff you for more as well).


G4-B3 will also spawn stun droids near him. These must be killed as quick as possible because they will stun the tank (and occasionally DPS or healers).


On normal mode, the optimal rotation is to move G4-B3 between the right and middle jets to minimize movement. All 3 jets do the same flame jet buff removal.


There are some differences in this fight on hard and nightmare modes. In addition to the incoming damage reduction buff, G4-B3 also gains a damage increase buff. Also, the 3 jets do different things. The starting (right) jet does the same flame jet debuff removal as normal mode (removes both his incoming damage reduction buff and his damage increase buff). The middle jet now magnetizes G4-B3 causing all the proximity mines to be pulled to him. The left jet fires a frost jet that removes G4-B3's incoming damage reduction buff, but not his damage increase buff.


The optimal rotation for hard/nightmare mode is to move him from right to left and back, skipping the middle jet as it will not remove any of his buffs.


There is also one key difference for 16-man. In this mode, the same person who fired the jet cannot be the first person to move a puzzle piece for the next solve. So, you'll want to either rotate positions for solving, or have a fourth person on the upper platform to be the first to click after firing.


Lastly, like most bosses, G4-B3 does have an enrage timer. For normal mode, it is at 10 minutes, for hard mode 8 minutes and 6 minutes in nightmare mode.

http://uk.ign.com/wikis/star-wars-the-old-republic/Karagga's_Palace

[voyak]

So 3 ranged dps will have to actually destroy the mines on the upper platform instead of walking through them and i'll try to jump around from top to bottom to give any additional heals when needed. That is because the mine will spawn at the middle platform, and i will have to focus on myself rather than the rest of the team members and it's not worth to loose the time on that mine for DPS'. Also remember that the mines will throw some high damage DOT on You when You're near, and when two players will catch them i might not be able to heal them.

[JanuZ]

When red group does it we have 2 ranged do the puzzle with a healer standing on the middle platform at all times. Having one of the DoTs from the mines on you isn't that bad so it is possible to run through a mine here or there. Knockbacks are the best way to deal with proximity mine. As a Sorcerer healer I use overload to knock down the middle platform mine while the ranged use knockbacks, run through or kill the rest of the mines. As long as the tanks are relatively topped off, the healer on the platform should be able to heal the ranged DPS when needed.

we swap tanks when there are 6 debuffs on a tank, we don't swap back until the new tank has 6 debuffs on them. The tanks have to stay on the platform side of the conveyor belt so that the healer on the platform can reach them. One of the bigger problems we had early on was Stun drones going down slowly between burns and that melee didn't pay attention and didn't run away when they got the Target on them so that they hit the tanks as well.

We have found this fight to be easier on Hard mode since the enrage isn't as tight and we didn't manage to do him on normal last monday with some alts because we didn't have a second ranged.

[Twyst]

i'll try to jump around from top to bottom to give any additional heals when needed.

You just stay where assigned.
I normally heal the bottom and Teni heals the top. Operatives have no knockback which means we're more suited to heal bottom if the other healer has one.

If I'm required to heal anyone at top, it's up to them to get to a platform edge so I can give them heals as it's too impractical to change which layer you're on.

[voyak]

ah, ok so we can switch this time. Never thought of knocking the mines. Thanks for the tips!

[JanuZ]

just a note that I only manage to knock the proximity mine away about 50%. It isn't a lot of space on that middle platform so you often trigger the mine before you can knock it back, a shield and a HoT spell should deal with it on the healer if it gets him. depending on the knockback and people location it can work better for the ranged DPS.